by Frederic Germay
There wasn’t really a ‘calm’ before the storm, unless you count the few minutes the final two contestants spent with their families. After that brief encounter with paradise, finalists Bonnie and Rock were plunged into the arduous task of decorating their half of the restaurant in the way that they would with their own. Bonnie chose to mirror her own personality – she wanted her restaurant hip, contemporary, and mismatched. Thankfully, she forgot to add ‘whiny’ to the overall décor. I can just imagine it now – after taking orders, the waiters and waitresses would start pouting and crying on cue, and complain about ‘not being meant to be here…’
On the other hand, Rock’s restaurant was going to be cool, classy, yet not overly formal. Wait…cool, classy – apparently Rock wasn’t trying to mirror his personality in his half of the restaurant. I’m perfectly confident that if Rock should win, he would carry on in Ramsay’s tradition of throwing hissy fits when everything isn’t going his way.
However, despite Bonnie’s enthusiasm, I actually think Rock’s restaurant would seem to be more indicative of fine dining…except for the jeans. Fortunately, I thought that the waiters wearing jeans might add an interesting clash to the fine dining atmosphere, but apparently Jean-Philippe put his foot down on that one. It was unnecessarily cruel to silence Rock’s stream of creativity, especially in such a condescending fashion. It is after all Rock’s half of the restaurant, not “Rock’s half of the restaurant, just as long as Jean Philippe doesn’t have a problem with it.”
After that encounter with an angry Frenchman, Rock seemed to slow down a bit and it seemed that he was slightly hesitant to show his creative energy. He picked a particularly bad time to falter, since the finalists were now deciding their menus. On another note, Bonnie seemed to nail this particular challenge. Have you ever the saying that women plan their weddings ever since they were girls? Well, I am starting to think there might be a shred of truth in that blaring stereotype. Despite all the whining, Bonnie may have actually thought that she could have won this competition, or she wouldn’t have entered, so she could have been prepared for this stage.
Whether she had planned this from the get-go, or she had just come up with it – she seemed to know exactly what she was doing. She put all of her favorite dishes on the menu, and she won the approval of Chef Maryanne. Rock still had a bit of difficulty on his end, and I started to drift in my stance that Rock would hands-down win this competition. All throughout the competition, he was so sure that he would get this far, but now that he’s finally here, he seems a bit thrown off his game. However, before they could finish planning their restaurant in the 36 hours allotted, Ramsay appeared with a surprise trip to Vegas.
In Vegas, we were subjected with a poorly disguised infomercial of how wonderful Green Valley Ranch and Resort is. If I have to hear Bonnie squeal with excitement one more time, I will personally allow myself to be eaten by a pack of ravenous wolves. The finalist seemed to enjoy this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Resort, and they have good reason, seeing as they’ll soon practically own parts of it. Then, admist the glee (where are those wolves), Ramsay took them to a stage and presented them with another challenge. They each had to cook their signature dish, and present it to a group of highly skilled chefs. After watching these annoying unfamiliar faces, we were treated to meeting Michael and Heather. Heather seems to have changed a bit, but Michael looks just as he did earlier, and he probably still has that weird I-talk-to-billboards-with-Ramsay-on-them-before-I-go-to-bed attitude. In the end, the owner and head chef of the Resort showed up to give their vote on the conveniently tied score. Bonnie won. I was almost worried that Rock would start screaming and throwing pans, but he kept his composure – probably because he had legions of adoring fans on his side.
Back at “Hell’s Kitchen,” the chefs were treated to another surprise – their old competitors returned. Thanks to an annoyingly long recap at the beginning of this episode, I had had an inkling this would happen. I wouldn’t have predicted Julia would be the sour grapes though, and it was disappointing to see her in this unpleasant light.
Bonnie chose Jen, and then Melissa over Julia. That was cruel. Rock chose Brad, and then Vinnie over Julia. That was cruel. Then Bonnie attempted to redeem herself by finally choosing Julia, and Josh walked over Rock’s rather unwilling side. This ought to be fun. I’m quite sure that Julia doesn’t want Bonnie to win after her humiliation, and now Josh can get some payback for Rock always putting him up on the chopping block.
This episode was great, but there was way too much filler. I give it a 7/10.
